Flipside: Beginning to Build Some Corroborating Evidence. My Olesen Family of Denmark

I continue to be somewhat frustrated searching through the Danish records with the patronymic surname.

North Sea to the west, a small shot of beach section of Ny Sogn

I have been able to nail down the area of Denmark where my Danish family lived as shown in the census reports and other documents. The first piece of research that I found zeroing in on an area in Denmark was my paternal great great grandfather's immigration report, which lists Jutland as his birthplace (1871 England, Wales & Scotland Census Transcription, Archive reference RG10, Piece number 4785, Folio 222). The first Denmark census report listing him with his family is 1845. Their home is in Rinkobing county, Hind hundred, Ny Sogn parish and the place name (which is the church nearest to their home), Haurvig (church) (Census Year 1845, Danish Demographic Database Ref. DDA-9888, Kipno. C1512. Parish: Nysogn. Hundred: Hind. County: Ringkøbing. Record no. 1435 of 1561). This area is in the portion of Denmark called Jutland.

Section of the Denmark map where my Olesen family lived

I love maps and utilizing them for family placement and to understand where they lived and why their choice of occupation. This map shows the area where my Olesen family lived. With the North Sea to the east and Rinkobing Fjord, to the south, they would have had their home near Haurvig Church in Ny Sogn.

Ole Christensen portion of 1845 Denmark Census

From the information gleaned from the 1845 Danish census: My paternal 3x great grandfather's name was Ole Christensen, son of Christen. He was born in 1809 In Rinkobing county, Buur Amt. parish. The 1845 census is the only one that lists his year of birth as 1809. All others and his death record lists 1820 as the year of his birth. I will admit that the year of birth threw a monkey wrench into my research so to continue researching this family, I had to focus on Ole's wife, my paternal 3x great grandmother, Elizabeth Lauridsdatter (Elizabeth daughter of Laurids). Her documentation remained constant throughout. But I digress. Ole was the owner of an agriculture business (eier jordbrug or jordbruk).

Another issue that has entered into my research is my paternal great great grandfather, Christian Ingvart Olesen, is only enumerated with his family at age one in 1845. I have spent a number of blogs relating that Christian was a somewhat belligerent hothead as an adult. Perhaps he also displayed these characteristics as a child and he was "farmed" out to various relations during his life in Denmark. I did find him listed on the 1860 Danish census and he was not living with his parents. To be fair, he was somewhat easy to find on the 1845 and 1860 census as his middle name is listed. Trying to nail down his record searching for Christian Olesen, even using his birth year and place has not proven fruitful. I am also not certain that the household he is enumerated with in 1860 is an extended family member. The "mother" of the household's surname is Christensen (oddly sen and not datter). Perhaps she is the sister of Christian's father.

As Ole and Elizabeth continued to add children to their family, the only one missing is my great great grandfather. Very strange. Before I forget, I want to mention that when my paternal great great grandfather married, the name of his first daughter, my paternal; great grandmother, was possibly a combination of the names of both of my paternal 3x great grandmothers--Elizabeth Ferdinande Olesen.

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published. PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.